KACPAW : Dogs taken for adoption, subjected to unethical surgery

The Sri Lanka Veterinary Council (SLVC) has opened an inquiry into an allegation by a leading animal welfare organisation based in Kandy that a veterinary professional who requested three dogs for adoption had allegedly used them (dogs) to perform surgical experiments.

The professional is denying the allegation, but the organisation - KACPAW (Kandy Association for Community Protection through Animal Welfare) is insisting that the professional allegedly misused the three dogs to conduct unethical surgery on them.

“We have received a complaint from KACPAW and are currently conducting an inquiry into the matter,” said Registrar of the Sri Lanka Veterinary Council – Dr. K.N.T. Kandaragama told The Sunday Times yesterday.

“Firstly, the Council will have to investigate the veterinary surgeons in question and verify the validity of the claims made against them. Once a comprehensive probe has been conducted, the Council will take the necessary course of action, he added. “It’s not possible to give a definite time frame as to when the investigation will be complete, as the Council must first meet and jointly decide on the required steps to follow,” said Dr. Kandaragama.

The veterinarian -a Professor- had reportedly visited the KACPAW shelter on May 22 supposedly wanting to adopt three pet dogs for himself and his wife. The organisation found that the Professor had not taken any of the dogs he adopted to his home but rather, to the Government Veterinary Hospital where surgery had been carried out on all three dogs.

“What KACPAW witnessed on the morning of May 28 at the Government Veterinary Hospital, was horrendous. In the name of surgery, all three perfectly healthy dogs had been cut open by the hospital’s veterinary surgeon”, a spokesperson said.

One dog had both vertical and horizontal incisions across and down her abdomen which were sutured with nearly 30 stitches. Although the animal had been operated on May 22, five days later when KACPAW found her, pus and blood was still oozing from the incision.

The second dog had apparently had its adrenal glands removed and had died the next morning. She had been buried at the hospital premises. A post mortem conducted by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science of the University of Peradeniya indicated no traces of the kidneys. A piece of cotton wool wrapped in a large piece of gauze was found inside the sutured abdominal cavity of the dog.

The third dog's pancreas has been removed and she also had a large incision down her abdomen. She had not been given to eat and thus on KACPAW’s discovery of her, could hardly stand up as she was very weak. Her fur was shaved almost up to the spine from both sides of her body and they also found cuts, lacerations, and small wounds on the shaved part of her body, obviously inflicted on her skin during shaving, they claimed.

KACPAW took the two dogs that survived the ordeal back to its shelter and subsequently obtained treatment for them at the animal clinic run by the Clinical Department of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science of the University of Peradeniya,

KACPAW’s Committee has written to the Sri Lanka Veterinary Council and the relevant authorities of the institutes in which the two veterinarians work to inquire into this and take appropriate action.

Head of the Department of Patho Biology, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, University of Peradeniya - Prof. R.P.V.J. Rajapaksa who had allegedly taken the dogs from KACPAW told The Sunday Times that he was waiting to meet his lawyer and hopes to “take action against these people who are trying to defame me,”.

Dr. Wasantha Kumara – Head Surgeon of the Government Veterinary Hospital, Gatambe told The Sunday Times that usual government hospital procedures had been followed with regard to animal research.

“It’s not my job to question the origin or the parentage of the animal brought to me for surgery in the name of surgery or otherwise. Even so, there was no tattoo or identification number on the animal to imply that it belonged to KACPAW and especially since the animals were brought to me by a researcher such as Prof. Rajapakse who’s held in such high repute in Veterinary circles, I just did as I was instructed,” he said.

“ Having been instructed to remove the pancreas and adrenal glands of two dogs and conduct an exploratory laporatomy (internal investigation) on the third dog, Dr. Kumara said that usual Government hospital procedure was followed with regard to animal research.

He had filled out an O.P.D. card and performed the required surgery, he explained. As for the KACPAW, post mortem of the third dog that died not having any kidneys, any medical professional is well aware that the kidneys dissolve within two days of death. Thus a dog exhumed five days after death not having kidneys comes as no surprise. However, there are ways of means of verifying if the dog did in fact have his kidneys at the time of death, but KACPAW did not make the necessary verifications.

“This looks to be more a case of professional jealousy as the Government Hospital gets more business than the veterinary teaching hospital located near the Government Hospital,” he said. Therefore, they are trying to put us into disrepute, he added.